We need to feel our opposition to the Light and bring ourselves to its state. If we don’t draw the Light to ourselves, we feel suffering since it feels bitter to sense that we are opposite to the Creator. Therefore, in order to give us an opportunity to develop properly, we are brought into a system called a “Kabbalistic group.” Instead of existing in a vacuum and not knowing how to develop in the attempts to become similar to the Creator, I find myself in a group.

I can work on uniting with the group, with others who aspire to the same goal as me. Instead of focusing on something invisible, being in a void, and not knowing where the suffering comes from or what’s going on, I work on unification. And our connection solves all the problems!

How can unification of the souls substitute for similarity to the Creator? Originally, in the World of Infinity we were one soul of Adam. Later, we broke into many parts, individual souls, and instead of the World of Infinity we began to feel our (broken) world. Through the breaking, the Light created qualities in us that are opposite to it, and the soul became opposite to the Light.

However, if we correct the breaking together and reunite, our action lends itself to the revelation of the Light, becoming like it. Instead of equalizing ourselves to the Light which is concealed, we equalize ourselves to the desires which we feel and understand. It seems to us as though we are being summoned, like good children, to unite and annul our egoism. But by doing so we reveal the Light in the unification of our desires because this is where the Light concealed itself: inside the broken Kelim.

It turns out that the opportunity to work in the group is the most practical and real application of Kabbalah. We perform actions that are available to us while, in essence, we reveal the Light that is situated beyond the breaking. In this manner we clarify our contrast to the Light, become equal to it, and unite. The Light and the vessel merge into one whole, and we return to the World of Infinity.

We reveal 620 states or degrees that separate us from each other and from the Light. By doing so we discover that we are opposite to the Light to the extent of 620 degrees and thereby understand the Light of Infinity 620 times better. We thus reveal the common soul and the entire Light that fills it: the Creator.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, Shamati #50

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There are two states in the advancement toward the spiritual goal. The first state is when a person has the sensation, the force, and the support of the group and the Creator. A person feels the importance of the property of bestowal, and this pushes him to draw closer to the Creator.

He has the sensation and the desire; the Creator shows him that it’s worthwhile to work on the spiritual goal. A person feels that there is a reward, meaning that he does not depend on faith: the property of bestowal within him. The sensation rouses love of friends and of the Creator.

In such a state, a person makes a covenant about love of friends and the Creator forever, for the future. What is this covenant with? It can’t be the Creator because in a state of descent, when one will distance himself from the Creator, he won’t feel His closeness, and the Creator won’t bind him.

That’s why the covenant has to be made with the group that can be felt in a state of descent as well. Through the group, we reach the agreement with the Creator: To always go by the path of bestowal to the Creator and the group. The group is a guarantee of the covenant. By making a covenant the entire group pledges to support each other and always hold the intention to bestow. They receive the Creator’s help to the extent of their connection.

The second state comes after some time, when the state of excitement and connection is replaced by indifference, inability to feel any importance of the goal, the Creator, or the reward for a good attitude toward the friends and the Creator. A person is unable to think about love, connection, and bestowal.

A) If a person does not receive support from the group, he falls, thinking that the Creator is unimportant and that there is no fulfillment or reward. He might leave the path altogether.

B) If the connection with the group awakens and attracts him, he is unable to drop everything and remembers the covenant that he has made. In a state of descent, the importance of bestowal vanishes since the reward disappears. And here a mutual guarantee, covenant, and connection with the group have to come to one’s aid.

In this way, a person returns to the covenant, to the state of goodness, love, and connection. He remembers that he has to go by faith above reason, above his current state of indifference as though the sensation that once gave him strength does exist and is even stronger!

In this way, a person wants to go by “faith above reason” (bestowal over reward). He then understands that he can receive strength from the Creator. And this brings him to a prayer.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/5/10, “What is the Matter of My Making A Pact in the Work”

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The Book of Zohar is being revealed now because it is a source of strength which can carry out all the corrections and advance us. Just as a train or a car cannot move without electricity or gas, we cannot advance without The Book of Zohar which gives us energy, “fuel” for advancement.

In addition, The Zohar reveals to us where we are situated, who we are, where we are advancing, and for what purpose. It reveals the whole path to us. In essence, it is the Light that illuminates the whole space that surrounds us in order for us to see where we are. The Zohar is the Light that gives us an opportunity to feel in our minds and hearts who we are and what we represent, how we are arranged, how we sense, think, and make decisions. It is the Light that illuminates the goal to us so that we understand to where we are advancing, with what speed, what is happening, and what to do.

The Zohar is the Light that gives strength, the Light that corrects us, and the Light that advances us on the path. It does everything. However, we need to rouse this Light and it’s not easy. After we rouse it, there’s nothing more to do because it knows how to arrange and carry out everything. We merely need to rouse it.

We think that the science of Kabbalah demands some impossible effort from us. However, the entire work is actually in our hands. After all, the Light needs to come and influence us. This Light is called Surrounding Light since it cannot clothe a person directly, clearly, and openly. It does this indirectly and we only feel the results of its actions but not it itself.

Under what condition is the Light drawn? It is drawn according to law of equivalence of form or the law of equality: The Light comes to the extent that I desire to become similar to it. How do I perform this action in order to become similar to it? Something that is called the group has been placed before me, and initially I hate it. In the same manner that I am opposite to the Light, I am also opposite to this Kli (the spiritual vessel) called a “group.”

To the extent that I try to unite with the group, to enter it, the Light affects me to the same exact degree. I am situated below, “under the group,” and it is on top, “above the group.” It turns out that I work on uniting with the friends, and to the extent that we unite the Light influences and corrects us. It unites us and the Light (the Creator) is revealed in our unification.

If this is the case, then everything is in my hands. The Light waits for me to perform this effort. I cannot unite with others; I merely need to desire this and to exert effort. Then it will happen.

Therefore, before we read The Book of Zohar, the strongest source of Surrounding Light, I need to think about the fact that I must unite with others, thereby preparing the vessel (Kli) for the Light that will glue it together and be revealed in it. After all, the Light is revealed only in the unification, in the place of the former breaking.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/3/10, The Zohar

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Question: Is our suffering in this world not enough that we have to feel more pain striving for the Upper World? It looks like a person doubles his suffering when he embarks on a spiritual journey, doesn’t he?

Answer: That is correct. Your suffering becomes greater so that you cover this spiritual distance faster! What else could possibly give you a start? However, we do not receive suffering from Above, but are expected to find this lovesickness on our own. The Light that Reforms evokes our heartfelt longing for it, and we start moving ahead motivated by the latter. This is not the same as the suffering of this world, where we are like animals who are being beaten and don’t understand why, and simply keep running from the blows.

It is up to us to start acting. But we think, “Oh well, let’s wait until the help from Above arrives and takes care of everything.” What kind of help do you think is going to come? Only the suffering in this world will force us to advance!

Alternatively, if you connect to the group, you will receive spiritual suffering and will start advancing sooner. It will be a sensation of a spiritual void, the longing of the heart, lovesickness. Then you won’t need to be driven by the corporeal pain. If you make an effort to advance at the speed that is assigned to you, according to your original spiritual genes (Reshimot), it won’t be necessary to drive you “toward happiness with a rod.”

It is true that when you ascend so high that you can connect with all the other souls, you start feeling pain for them like a mother suffers when seeing the pain of her children. This is why we think that Kabbalists also suffer in this world.

From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Nothing disappears in spirituality. On the contrary, the differences between the souls become even more vivid. Every particular soul possesses special qualities that create the entire wealth of perceiving the Creator. This happens precisely by virtue of connecting with the opposite qualities of other souls. That is how the mutual perception of the Creator becomes 620 times greater than the perception of a separate soul.

The size of our spiritual vessel (Kli) is not defined by its quality, but quantity. That is why every soul is revealed more powerfully and uniquely. This is similar to stem cells which are universal and can be used like building blocks to build everything else. The heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs can all be built out of this basis called the stem cell.

The same thing is true in spirituality. For now each of us lives inside the “stem cell” of his own soul. Later we will begin connecting to the general system, the group, or the system of souls that we reveal in the group, and by attaching them to us, we will then connect to the Creator who becomes revealed in the system of souls. That is when we will also begin to attain ourselves: Who we are, what we belong to, what our soul is, what my mission is, and what my main quality is out of the entire sum of qualities accompanying it.

Therefore, when we advance in spirituality, every person becomes more and more connected with everything, but at the same time he stands out more and more, becomes more unique because by connecting with others, he increases his own “stem cell.” That is why Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom” that every person must develop, rather than suppress, his unique qualities. By virtue of every person’s uniqueness, we will attain a huge, perfect vessel of the soul in which we will be able to perceive the entire spiritual world and the Creator 620 times greater than at the beginning of creation.

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/1/10, The Zohar

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State 1 (our present state) is “bestowal” to oneself, which is comprised of our pleasure and the desired fulfillment. State 2 (the state we wish to achieve) is bestowal to the Creator, which will constitute pleasure for us. And herein lies the contradiction.

In “bestowal” to oneself, the action itself, the work, and the reward are all in one direction, in one line. Therefore, it is called the Direct Light, and everything is clear to us here. The beginning, the end, and the achievement of this final goal are directed in one direction: toward me.

But if I wish to delight in bestowal to the Creator, then the problem of opposite intention and result emerges. I need to correct the intention, and it’s against my desire! Bestowal to the Creator should turn into reception of pleasure for me. And I must enjoy since that is the plan of creation. Yet the enjoyment should come from bestowal, and this is completely opposite to me!

The purpose of creation is pleasure, and the correction of creation is bestowal. However, these two conditions contradict each other. This is the main obstacle and difficulty of our perception, which constantly blocks our path, depriving us of an opportunity to realize what was planned.

We have to exert great effort and perform enormous work on the one hand, and yet on the other, its outcome does not depend on us; it is given from Above. Meanwhile we only reveal our desire through our work. We don’t acquire the goal, but rather, obtain the Kli, the vessel that can hold it.

Therefore, these two opposites (bestowal to the Creator and the pleasure derived from it) will unite only from adhesion with Him. And only the Upper Light, which changes our nature, can bring us to this adhesion.

We need to change from the state in which the heart controls the person (and for this reason Kabbalah considers such a person “wicked”) to a state where a human being in us governs over the heart and thus a person is called “righteous.” And there is only one solution for achieving this: the Kabbalistic group, which is a model, an example, and the framework in which we can check ourselves and see to what extent we correspond to this goal or not.

The group is capable of convincing me that I don’t have anything more valuable than bestowal to the Creator! On the other hand, however, I reach the conclusion that I am incapable of anything, and only the Creator can help me. In this manner I reach the needed desire, a prayer.

However, right now we lack these two polar opposites: Keter and Malchut, the Direct Light and the Reflected Light, the reverse correspondence to the Light and the desire. All of this is contained only in the corrected Kli that has an intention against the desire.

We need to build this model of the first 10 Sefirot within ourselves for the first time. Then we will have the inner structure, like a first cell of a new organism, from which the embryo of the soul will develop.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10, “What Are the Two Actions During the Time of Descent?”

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Question: Why does the Creator allow some people to commit brutal crimes?

Answer: The science of Kabbalah illuminates the questions of perception of reality, free will, and human nature, showing that a person who lives in this world does not possess freedom of choice. Therefore, he doesn’t commit any conscious acts.

A person can attain the freedom of choice only in a Kabbalistic group, which is a group of people connected in order to attain the spiritual goal. In this case a person receives or earns some degree of acting freely. However, those who have not reached spiritual attainment and have not reconciled two opposite forces, action and intention, do not act at all!

They arrive at the end of this life as if they have never lived. In other words, they haven’t lived as “humans.” It is their biological body that lived, just like any other type of animal. It is a life dictated by instinctive nature only. A person can only rise above it by way of “faith above reason,” when he desires to attain a different nature.

The unity of these two natures, Upper and lower, is regarded as the human in him. Only a person who achieves this can be said to have performed independent actions that are worth punishing or rewarding. In other words, only a Kabbalist can be judged for his own actions. An ordinary person cannot be judged since he acts in accordance with Nature’s orders. He follows one route and does nothing using his own free will.

Nevertheless, in our world punishing measures are necessary. However, we don’t administer them at will but under orders from Above, although it happens through the government legislature, courts, and law enforcement devices. All of this exists in order to hasten our development!

This is the Upper Governance over all people, who are like puppets, with the purpose of bringing them closer to the point of freedom of choice.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/10, “What Are the Two Actions During the Time of Descent?”

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The Simulator is spirituality because it means we are building something between us with a desire to produce our common spiritual state. This state exists outside of us, like an external point of connection between us that I can always make contact with. I can be constantly connected to it and I can constantly contribute everything I am capable of to it. I will then receive the spiritual force – life from it.

Therefore, the simulator is a spiritual quality like Bina. That is exactly how we should relate to it. That is why we have to turn this virtual space into our inner, spiritual space. We have to “throw” all our aspirations, hopes, and concerns into it. What is a group is and where is mutual guarantee? It’s there! Throw everything in there, inside this “mail box.” If we all put our efforts and aspirations for spirituality into this single space and receive spiritual life only from it, then this is exactly what we need.

This space is virtual in the external sense, but in the internal sense it is the place where all our desires, aspirations, and intentions are concentrated. That’s why this space is spiritual and the Creator becomes revealed inside it. We build the Creator ourselves; He is not outside of us. All of this is extremely serious. The time has come for us to start doing serious practical work.

The whole question is: Does a person consider this “simulator” the most important thing in his life, just like spirituality? Does he desire to receive inspiration from it instead of another place? If yes, then the inspiration he feels is spiritual because he is impressed by the connection among us which is embodied there in that simulator. At the end of the day, we must see it as the focus of our common concern and the source of life for everyone.

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Question: What discernment should I demand from the group?

Answer: I must discern what bestowal is since I don’t have any idea about it yet and it is hidden within my connection with the friends. We must make efforts together to find bestowal between us. It isn’t somewhere out there in the clouds, but right here on earth (Aretz), in our desire (Ratzon).

We must turn this land or desire into “the land of Israel” (Eretz Isra-El, Yashar-Kel) so the desire revealed in our connection will be so correct, strong, and discerned that in it we will reveal the first “holy name,” the first revelation of the Creator. This should be our aspiration.

These discernments have to be made collectively and collaboratively, not individually. This type of discernment is made by the group depending on how much everyone desires to see it happen. Out of all these desires we build one universal, powerful desire to identify what is bestowal, which we wish to attain, and in what form it should be revealed. This happens inside the connection between us. The only question left is: How willing are we to unite as one man with one heart to reach this goal, to attain this desire?

All of our work is in order to form the inner need to receive the Torah, assistance from Above, the Light that Reforms. This is what the people received at Mount Sinai – the capacity to use the Upper Light’s assistance. As a result they experienced various obstacles and transgressions, the revelation of evil which is the vessel for revealing the names of the Creator.

Broken desires that need correction are constantly revealed in us, and inside them we reveal the holy name of the Creator, the quality of bestowal. Until we reveal this quality, however, we reveal its opposite, the egoistic quality of reception. In other words, we have to go from hatred to unity and oneness.

From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 08/11/10, “You Should Always Discern Between Torah and Work”

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I have strong hopes that you will understand what the spiritual stimulator that we want to build is. The group is something extremely vague, unknown, and elusive; it’s as if it is hanging in the air somewhere. Meanwhile, the stimulator is a very tangible place on the Internet where questions, answers, aspirations, goals, and clarifications are concentrated. You can think of it as a third party. For the time being, this kind of attitude toward the group, the soul, the spiritual world, and the Creator is more understandable to us.

The spiritual world is revealed in our connection, in the network that connects us. This is why we have to build this space on the Internet so that it will connect us. Think that it’s a connection between us, and give more strength to it every time. Everyone can enjoy great impressions and inspiration by taking part in it because it is less obscure and a more tangible environment that one can actually “touch.”

Today people live on the Internet and reveal the whole world of senses and a new dimension there instead of in our material life. If we attain the state in which the group influences and awakens us through this stimulator, then we won’t miss a single moment in spiritual advancement.

It may be that a person’s entire life is just one moment which can remain unfinished. This is because a moment begins from Above and is finished by us below. The Creator awakens a person and he has to react. If he responds to the proposition of getting closer, then the moment is finished and the next one begins.

Life is composed of such moments; they make up our advancement and determine how much we will achieve during this life-cycle. However, if the person does not respond, a moment never finishes…Seize the moment!

From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/10, Baal HaSulam’s Letter 18

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